


Crazy In The Rain

by snowzone5



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Crying, F/M, Kissing, Mileven, Modern AU, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25768003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowzone5/pseuds/snowzone5
Summary: Every time it rains, Max and Eleven see this guy who lives across the street, go out and sit in the rain. El finally decides to go out and talk to him.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 20
Kudos: 27





	1. Mr. Crazy-In-The-Rain

**Author's Note:**

> This one will be 2 or 3 chapters.

“It’s about to rain El. You don’t want to miss Mr. Crazy-in-the-Rain.” Max called out from her room.

El had already lit the fireplace, and was holding a cup of tea while she sat by the window and waited for him.

There he was. Standing on his front porch knee high shorts, t-shirt and no socks. He was the most gorgeous hunk of meat she’d seen in her entire life. 

His mostly corkscrew long hair was already a mess. He hadn’t stepped off his porch yet. El knew he was waiting for it to rain. 

As soon as the rain started, he walked out to the middle of the road and looked up. The rain started to come down heavier.

“Can you see his package from here?”

“Is that all you think about Max? And no, I can’t see it from here. Maybe I need to go out there and wait till he’s soaked before I can see anything. I’ll come back and report to you.” 

El was a little disgusted with Max. If she just settled down with Lucas, El was sure he’d be a good influence on her.

She finally made the decision, she’d be hemming and hawing to herself for weeks to just go out and talk to him. She only ever saw him in the rain, and after a few times mentioning it, Max started calling him Mr. Crazy-In-The-Rain.

“I’m going out there.” She said with finality. She passed her empty mug to Max. 

She took off her socks, winked at Max and said, “When in Rome…”

  
  


XXXXX

  
  
  


_ I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to tell someone how much I love the rain. Everyone thinks I’m crazy for being out in it all the time.  _

When he was ready, he sat down.

Mike’s eyes were closed but he could sense her presence and smell her perfume… no not perfume, it was one of those disgusting flavoured teas girls liked so much.

“Don’t sit down.”

“You don’t want me to sit with you?” She said.

“I do, but your bum is probably dry. You will feel icky if you sit now. You need to wait until you are completely soaked. I’ll stand and wait.”

Mike kept his eyes closed, but stood up facing her.

“I didn’t mean to be forward. I rarely talk about girl’s bums. To the girl herself, anyway... I wanted you to have the benefit of the experience. Icky wet bums are not a good user experience.”

She giggled. She didn’t sound angry at all.

“My roommate calls you Mr. Crazy-In-The-Rain.” She said.

“The redhead? Oh, I thought she was your significant other.”

“We’re just good friends. She needed a place to stay. I had the house. ”

Mike smiled nodded, his eyes still closed. The rain came down harder.

“We are getting soaked. When does the feeling icky part go away?”

“Wait for it. I was already pleasantly soaked.”

“Are you even going to look at me?” She said.

“When you are soaked, and we are sitting comfortably… yes.”

“Why?” She sounded genuinely curious.

“You can see real beauty in the rain. It will wash away the facade. Sure, maybe your makeup will run if you wear any, but I will see you in the rain, plain and vulnerable. Nothing to hide. I will look at your face, not your body, or your breasts. Just you. Just your eyes. If you rather I didn’t see that. You can go back in and dry off.”

She didn’t say anything but she didn’t leave.

“You’re still here.” Mike said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you.”

“I’m probably an acquired taste. Believe it or not, not everyone likes me.”

She giggled again. “Impossible.”

Her voice now serious, “You really speak your mind. That’s… that’s as refreshing as this rain is and… oh!”

“Ah, you feel it don’t you?” Mike said.

“Yes, I’m pleasantly soaked, too. This is beautiful, I’ve only ever felt this way once and I was too scared to really appreciate it. I’m going to sit now.”

“Better isn’t it?”

“Better than an icky wet bum, that’s for sure. You were right. I guess I’m not surprised it’s coming from Mr. Crazy-In-The-Rain. I… don’t want to call you that...”

“Mike.”

“Hello Mike, my name is Eleven.”

  
  


XXXXX

El looked down at him.  _ Oh lord, he looks like a rock star. A completely gorgeous-I-will-do-you-now rock star. His hair is a mess. And gorgeous. His face and lips are wet… and… don’t go there El. But he’s really  _ really _ good looking! _

_ Shit he just told me not to sit down. Obviously he wants to be alone. But… no. He’s starting to spout some hippy nonsense.  _

She knew about hippies because she was pretty sure her dad was one… way back.

_ He’s not being mean, he’s speaking his mind. I don’t think anything ever gets to this guy. I’ll bet nothing bothers him. _

Finally she was sitting comfortably, the warm rain had completely soaked her. He was right, you have to wait until you are completely soaked. _Pleasantly soaked_ , that’s what he called it.

“...my name is Eleven.”

At that, he opened his eyes. The most glorious, deep, dark, and gentle eyes bored into her soul. El thought she would pass out. She had never seen eyes on a guy like that. 

“Oh…,” he said.

_ Shit. He just saw my hair. I’m probably not quite what he’d pictured in his mind. Ah, well, this was fun while it lasted. Thought we might have had some kind of connection there. _

He was silent. He kept looking into her eyes.

“Mike…?”

He cleared his throat. “You have the most heartbreakingly pretty eyes I’ve… um… you are really pretty Eleven.”

El was sure she’d seen him having a hard time swallowing… and almost positive she saw a tear run down his cheek, despite the heavy rain.

Her heart started pounding. Even in the rain she felt one of her own tears roll down her cheek.

_ He can’t be real. _

“Thank you. Nobody has ever told me I’m pretty.”

She certainly hadn’t expected him to say anything to her like that. Get right down to it, she hadn’t expected  _ anything _ he’d said to her.

“Then they didn’t see you in the rain. Not like I see you now. I’m going to close my eyes again. I want to burn this into my memory.”

El did the same thing, for the same reason.

_ Ok. I’m feeling funny. I like this guy. I mean, I think he’s very crunchy granola, but not… too flakey? I don’t know. I need to talk to him more. Shit. Looks like the rain is slowing down, it’ll probably stop soon. Then he’ll get up, I’m sure he’ll say goodbye, and he’ll go back inside, out of my life. _

The rain did slow down... i t finally stopped.

But she didn’t need to open her eyes again to know that Mike was still sitting there.

She took a quick peek, to see if he’d opened his eyes. She could see his tear tracks, and saw him wipe his arm over his eyes.

She heard him sigh. “I don’t want to leave,” he said.

“Neither do I.” El replied.

_ I’m just going to go for it. _

“I really want to kiss you.” She said, her face burning, her heart racing.

He leaned forward and tilted his head to the side. The kiss was warm and soft.

“I can taste your tears, Eleven. Please don’t cry. I want to look into your eyes again. Is that too weird for you?”

“As long as you don’t mind me looking into yours. I could taste your tears too. You know, if I tell Max about this, she’s just going to roll her own eyes.”

“I can start a fire at my place, we can dry off there if you… ok. That sounds like a pickup line. But.. the offer is open. We’ll get chill now that the sun is going down.”

“Just a few more minutes. I have never felt at peace like this that I can remember.”

“You already know I do this every time it rains.” It was a solemn smile he gave her.

“Weren’t you worried about traffic?”

“Look over my shoulder.”

El leaned a bit to the side and looked down the street. “Ok?”

“How many cars do you see?”

“None.”

“It will be the same thing if you look behind you. This is a Sunday night, everyone is usually home. No traffic, because no cars. It’s one of the reasons I picked a house in the older part of town. There’s… another reason, I can tell you later. Probably.”

_Probably?_ _Sounded mysterious._ _He doesn’t sound like someone who keeps much to himself. Not like me, that’s for sure._

She shivered. 

“Ok, I don’t want to be responsible for you getting a cold. Offer is still open.”

“If you up the offer with a glass of wine you have a date.”

“Fireplace date? Yes, I have wine. Thank you Eleven. You have made this a perfect day for me.”

_ Oh… the way he says my name. I could listen to him say that over and over again while he looked into my eyes. _

_ What is going on here? Why do I feel this way? Some guy says you are pretty and now you are going to his house… with wine. Really El? _

_ I can take care of myself. That’s the one thing he doesn’t know about me.  _

_ But he’ll find out if he tries anything. _


	2. Pleasantly Dry

“Ok. First things first. Let’s get you out of those clothes.”

“I beg your pardon!” El said, her face leaving no room for any interpretation other than disgust.

She saw that he blushed immediately, and lowered his eyes. For the first time in the brief period she knew him, he seem flustered and not so self-assured.

“Um, I mean… uh, the bathroom down here is just off the kitchen. You can dry off, and there is a bathrobe for you to wear. Or there is a sweatshirt and trackpants. There’s a laundry room right next to the bathroom, so you can throw your clothes in the dryer. There’s another bathroom upstairs if you prefer to use that one instead. He avoided her eyes keep his head down.

_ Of course that’s what he meant, El. Why did you snap at him? Let’s face it El, you are half expecting to sleep with him tonight aren’t you? _

“Is it ok if I take a shower?” El asked.

Mike nodded and then made his way to the stairs.

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


Mike was surprised to see that Eleven was wearing the bathrobe. He was wearing a pair of trackpants and a t-shirt himself.

_ Does that mean she’s naked underneath? Shit, what are you going to do? If that’s what she’s here for you are going to tell her you’ve never had sex? _

“I might have come across as very sophisticated while sitting like a fool in the rain out there, but I’m not really. I don’t really drink. I have one bottle of white wine. One bottle of red, two different bottles of beer, and a cheap bottle of scotch. I don’t entertain a lot. What kind of wine do you like?”

“How’s this for sophistication. I like wine that isn’t sweet but very grapey.”

He was finally over his embarrassment and looked at her again. His heart twinged a little as he looked at her eyes and she smiled at him.

_ Is being that pretty even legal? _

“I don’t want to sound like a wine snob, but you are describing a dry, fruity wine. I have a red wine called  _ Six Rows _ that fits that description. Let me get the fire going first.”

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


El took a quick look at his ass when he bent over to put wood in the fireplace.

_ Ooh, that’s nice. I wonder what it looks like under those track pants? _

He looked over his shoulder as if to say something and saw her checking her phone. “You expecting a call?”

“I thought Max might have texted me. I’m sure she thinks I’m over here screwing your brains out.”

For the second time, she saw him blush, and lose the air of self-assurance. He tried to recover by saying. “Oh, I didn’t know that was an option.”

El giggled and said, “Not on a first date mister.”

“Yes, of course, it was quite a chore just getting you out of your clothes. I shouldn’t expect more.”

El giggled again.  _ Ok I think that bit of awkwardness is over. _

_ What a relief. One thing is for sure. He’s never been to bed with a girl. He’s not a player. He has lot of self-confidence, but he’s very shy around girls. I can tell he has to work at being casual around me. My training is paying off. _

XXXXX

The fire was going just nicely.

“What was that!”

Mike swivelled his head around fast. Eleven eyes were like saucers, she looked panicked. She was looking around like she needed to find an escape route.

“You ok? I think that was just thunder. Rain during the day in Hawkins usually means a bad thunderstorm at night. I think we are going to get a doozy tonight. Wind is starting to pick up."

Mike had a smile on his face. He loved storms, the worse, the better he liked them.

His smile disappeared though, when he saw that Eleven was on the verge of tears, her lower lip was trembling.

_ Uh, oh. She doesn’t like storms.  _

“M-Mike?” Her voice was tiny, barely audible.

He went to her and gathered her in his arms. 

“It’s ok Eleven. You are safe here.”

He could feel her tears soaking through to his shoulder. There was a crack of lightning and he could feel her cringe.

_ She’s  _ really _ scared. _

“W-W-Would it be ok if I stayed here tonight. I d-don’t like storms.”

“Of course, you can have the room upstairs, I’ll take the sofa here.”

“N-n-no. I mean  _ with _ you?”

“Ok, if you want me to hold you… I… of course… I have an idea. Follow me.”

Eleven trailed after him to the laundry room. "Ok, in that closet there are blankets. Grab them all." Mike grabbed a bucked of clothespins.

“What are you going to do with all these blankets?” Eleven asked sounding curious, and Mike noted for at least a moment, she wasn’t thinking about the storm they were about to get.

“You’ll see.” He smiled at her.

She gave him a half scared smile. But Mike saw the trust in her eyes, and that was a good sign. 

This was going to work.

XXXXX

  
  


_ That’s not going to work _

_ What is he doing? Covering me up in blankets isn’t going to help. If the roof comes off in the wind, rain will soak the blankets, I’ll be weighed down not able to run and escape the lightning.  _

“Mike…?”

He had been moving furniture around, and now started grabbing blankets.

“Give me a minute, Eleven, you’ll see.”

He started covering the edges of the furniture with blankets. Pinning them in place with the clothes pins.

_ A blanket fort? He’s making me a blanket fort? _

El smiled inside.  _ I think he’s going to cuddle me all night in a blanket fort! In front of the fireplace. I don’t even care about the wine now. He’s going to protect me. I won’t burst his bubble, that can’t stop the lightning… but I’ll be with him. That will be ok… I hope. _

“That’s a very good blanket fort.”

“Not done yet.” He grabbed more blankets to put inside, and he fumbled around zipping two sleeping bags together.

Another rumble of thunder was low and long. Panic rose in her throat again.

“Be right back.”

Mike went back in the direction of the laundry room. He came out with what looked like a big stiff blanket made of woven copper. He put it around the entire blanket fort.

“Um, Mike. there are holes in that copper blanket, lightning can get through. She knew she was sounding completely unreasonable but she couldn’t help it.

“Ah, that’s where you are wrong, Eleven. The entire blanket fort is now covered by a Faraday cage. Lightening  _ can’t _ get through.”

“Mike… ok I’m overly scared of storms, but that’s not a reason to treat me like a child with science mumbo-jumbo.”

He went over to a bookcase, looked back and forth across two shelves. “Ah.” He said. 

He pulled out a book and thumbed through it.

“Here it is.” He held out the book, his finger keeping the paged bookmarked as he handed it to her.

He gestured toward the blanket for she got in. It was cozy. And warm. It would soon have a Mike in it. That made her feel even better.

The title at the top of the page was  _ Faraday Cage.  _ There was a little girl, sitting in a cage that looked exactly like the one surrounding the blanket fort.

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


Eleven looked up at him from the blanket fort.

“You didn’t lie to me.”

“I will never lie to you Eleven. I promise. There’s no point of you being here with me in a storm, if i can’t make you safe.”

“Thank you.”

_ How can I tell her that there’s no way I could look at those scared eyes and  _ not _ do something? I think I’m falling for her. That’s dangerous after only knowing her for a few hours. And what if she gets… amorous… what do I do then? _

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


_ How can I tell him it’s not going to work? He’s trying so hard to make me feel safe, to protect me. I think I’m falling for him. _

But it  _ was _ working. She felt safe, warm, and, she giggled to herself, pleasantly dry.

The thunder and lightning was almost constant now. The wind was whistling through the trees, the rain pounded the roof.

A strange calmness had fallen over her. Like there was nothing to worry about. Ever.

She felt that way until the power went out.

  
  


XXXXX

The power didn’t even flicker. It just went out. He could see the look of panic on Eleven’s face start to ramp up.

He was in the blanket fort, pulling the blankets over them, and holding her before she could say anything.

She was trembling in his arms, almost vibrating.

Wait. Something  _ was _ vibrating.

“I think that’s your phone.” Mike said.

“It’s my dad. He’s checking to see if I’m alright.”

“Are you?”

“Yes I am… thanks to you.”

She texted back and forth with her dad a few times. 

“Ok, that’s odd.”

“What’s that,” Mike said.

“He said I was in good hands. What does he mean by that?”

“Well, you  _ are _ in good hands, but I don’t know how your dad would know. I’d think he’d be knocking down my door if he knew you were here.”

“Is there something about you I don’t know?” Eleven said, sounding curious again.

“Your name is Eleven, I already know there is something about you I don’t know.”

“You first,” she said. “What do you do for a living? I noticed you don’t have a TV, or a phone. There’s something mysterious about you.”

“About Mr. Crazy-In-The-Rain?”

“Yes,” she giggled, “That guy.”


	3. Figuring It Out Together

El giggled when she said, “That guy.” But Mike was silent. He gave off a huge sigh. El barely heard it over the thunder.

“You sound like you don’t really want to tell me.” El said.

“I don’t. But I also don’t want to lie to you. I made you that promise, and I intend to keep it.”

“Is it bad… Mike? If it is, you don’t have to.”

“No it’s not bad. It’s just… I don’t know… when I tell people they look at me differently. They act weird around me. I’ll be honest, I could have bedded a thousand women by now, but I haven’t… not even one… and uh, wow, didn’t want to tell you that first thing. I’ve never… I’m…”

El put a finger across his lips, she pulled it away just before she leaned in and kissed him. 

“Mike, it’s ok. If it makes you feel any better, me either. But… if it happens, we’ll figure it out together… ok?”

“Ok.”

El could feel the heat from his face. “It’s ok Mike. It really is. We both have our reasons.”

“Why are you so easy to talk to?” He asked her.

“Maybe we were meant to talk to each other?”

“Otherwise why would you come out and sit with me in the rain.”

“Exactly,” El laughed.

“Wow,” Mike sighed again. “Where to start.”

“Like they say in the movies, ‘from the beginning’ “

“From the beginning it is then…”

  
  


XXXXX

“I was never good at fixing things. I mean, I tried, but I just wasn’t any good at it. I probably got that from my dad because he was pretty much useless too. I don’t mean that in a bad light, but fixing things was so not his thing.”

“I couldn’t even fix my bike when it had problems. My best friends and I used to sit around looking at our bikes. We were smart, got good grades in science and all that… and we tried to approach problems logically, but we just weren’t any good at mechanical stuff.”

“I never wanted to be a car mechanic or anything like that, I just wanted to understand how to fix… mechanical things I guess. I talked to Mr. Clarke our science teacher. He seemed to know a lot about everything. I think he was the smartest guy in the room,  _ any _ room.”

“He was your favourite teacher, wasn’t he?” El asked.

“Yeah, we learned so much from him. I was happy to be able to repay him.”

“Repay him?”

“I’m getting to that.”

“He suggested I take mechanical engineering. He said I was already good at math, so the math part would be easy for me. But I would get an understanding of how things worked. He once told me that most kids complain about doing math they don’t understand, and why should they learn it when they are never going to use it?”

“And now I see kids at a cash register today, that can’t even make change for themselves at a store. If the machine can’t tell them, they are done. Sad really.”

“Anyway, so I took mechanical engineering in college. I thought it was fascinating. If you take a piece of paper, quickly do a squiggly line on it, it turns out that line you just drew randomly has an actual math formulato it.”

“It does?” 

“Yes, our whole world is math. Some of it is so complicated they call it Chaos Theory, but even that is being broken down little by little.”

“One day we were in the lab at college, and we had a piece of equipment delivered. A Hurco Machining Center. It got delivered and we got out our crowbars and started prying off the crate. Took us something like three hours, before we gave up.”

“I was thinking to myself, ‘this is crazy’,” he winked at her, “you know me, Mr. Crazy right.”

El smiled at him, and he grinned back.

“This is crazy, here are five of us, mechanical engineers with crowbars, basically a really good lever, and it’s taking us three hour to get this thing opened up. I felt like a kid again. I felt helpless. But I got an idea. We had a lot mechanical equipment, I was in a college lab after all. I went to a computer did some CAD work.”

“CAD?” El asked, frowning. 

_ I think Mike is really smart. I know I’m not stupid, but if his story is going where I think it’s going… I don’t think he’s going to be that interested in me after all. _

“Computer Aided Design. We used AutoCAD, clunky, and it had printer driver issues, but other than that it worked. So a few hours on it that night, a few more machining some parts and I had what I wanted.”

“The instructor showed up the next morning. He woke me up. I was sleeping on a lab bench. He wasn’t mad though. In the middle of the floor was a pile of shipping crate walls and packing, with the Hurco a few feet away.

“Ok, Mr. Wheeler,” The instructor said.

“Wait… your last name is Wheeler?”

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you? Sorry.”

“So he asks me how I did it alone, Overnight. I told him  _ ‘Well sir, I did it in about fifteen minutes, with that’  _ I pointed him to the machine I’d made.”

Mike stopped talking.

El had been looking at him, her eyes were wide with anticipation.

“Oh my god your eyes are pretty. I half expected them to be glazed over by now.”

“Mike, the suspense is killing me. What did you make?”

“I’d made what I called a _hydraulic crowbar._ That’s one of the things a mechanical engineer will do, make the tool he needs to solve a problem. So that day, instead setting up the Hurco, we patented the idea, along with customizations. Within a week, we had deals with manufacturing plants, tool companies, construction companies, you name it. _”_

“Mike… are you trying to tell me you are a millionaire.”

“Think bigger.”

“A billionaire?” El thought her eyes would pop out of her skull.

“Bigger.”

“What’s bigger than a billionaire?”

“Last time I met with my accountant, Will, , my net worth is around one point three trillion.”

El was silent.

Mike was too. 

“That’s why you don’t like to tell anybody isn’t it. Especially women.”

“I was scared to death to tell you.”

“Why Mike?”

Mike took in a deep breath, it all came out in a whooshing sigh. He looked into her eyes with his own. El could barely hold his gaze.

“Because I think I’m falling for you. I mean, I knew if we ever had a thing I was going to have to tell you, but now I’m scared to death you’ll find it too much… and… I don’t know.

“Something has changed, Mike. I won’t deny it.”

Mike hung his head low and nodded.

His body language looked like he’d lost everything. 

El had seen it before. 

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


_ There you go asshole. Just like you knew it would happen. Nothing new here. You told someone and now she has no idea what to think about you. Then you went and pretty much told her you were in love with her. She won’t be sticking around long. Mike listened for her excuse. _

_ Shit. _

“What’s changed Mike, is...”

_ Yup. Here it comes. I don’t even want to hear it. I’m just going to go up and go to bed, she can let herself out. _

“Is that I’ve just been through one of the worst storms I can remember, and except for the start of it. I didn’t notice it at all. You told me a story, true or not, I don’t care, but I was cuddled up in your arms and listened, completely oblivious to the storm. Nobody has ever done that for me. What’s even better, is that I know the story is true.”

“How do you know that?” He looked into her eyes once again.

“Because you promised never to lie to me. I trust you to keep that promise.”

XXXXX

_ Ok, El. What do you do now? You have questions. Lots of questions. He practically told you he fell in love with you. The feeling is mutual isn’t it? He is gorgeous, smart as a whip, and almost too kind to be real. I know one thing. If he answers my questions honestly, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to… then I will tell him everything. That means  _ everything.  _ I will have to tell dad I told him, that was our agreement, but... MIke has to know. There’s no way I’d keep that from the guy I love. There I just said it. _

_ I love Mike Wheeler. _

The freedom El felt from thinking that was easily as exhilarating as being pleasantly soaked in the rain.

_ I love Mike Wheeler. _

“Mike. I’m a jammie girl.”

“Uh, what does that mean?”

“It means I like to wear pajamas to bed.  _ Especially _ in blanket forts.”

“You can wear a pair of mine.”

“I’ll go change.”

She got out of the blanket fort, glanced at the clock. It was three in the morning.  _ I don’t think I’m going to be sleeping tonight. _

She found his bedroom easily. She noticed it was only a single bed. She felt a little sorry for him. Clearly he did not expect to be sleeping with anyone any time soon. He must be lonely even knowing he has just a single.

She found his dresser… she took a quick look in his top drawer, she saw his boxer briefs. 

_ Go ahead El. you  _ know _ you want to sniff them. If the situation were reversed he’d be sniffing your panties. That’s what Max would say. I don’t believe it. _

_ I’m not going to. _

She closed the drawer and worked her way down until she saw a drawer full of pajamas.

_ Ok, there’s a pair of Star Wars pajamas, I can tell they no longer fit him, but he’s too sentimental about getting rid of them. I’m going to risk it. _

  
  


XXXXX

  
  
  


“May the force be with you.” Mike said as soon as he saw her in the pajamas.

“I’d prefer a Star Wars, onesie, but these will do.” 

_ She is too cute in those things.  _ Mike thought.

“They are yours, they no longer fit me, and you look… um, very cute in them.”

“I have questions Mike.”

“Yeah… I know... I will answer all of them Eleven. I made up my mind to tell you everything when you didn’t walk out the door.”

“You will have questions too Mike. I will answer all of them.”


	4. Nice Guys Finish Last

“Eleven, this is a Sunday night… don’t you have to work tomorrow morning… or in a few hours now that I see the time.”

“I’m taking a correspondence course, sort of at my own pace… Mike, I absolutely love hearing you say my name. But you can call me El for short… only if you want to.”

“Ok, Eleven… uh, El. What are you taking a course in?”

“I’m getting my criminology degree. I want to be a criminal profiler.”

Mike looked like he was thinking, he frowned slightly.

“Oh, so  _ you’re _ the criminologist. And chief Hopper is your dad.”

El could feel his tears on her cheek. He was crying a lot, but still trying to hold it in.

She gave him a minute, then tried to lighten the mood. She didn’t know why knowing who her dad was made him sad.

“You say that like you might be a criminal… wait a minute... you were expecting to meet a criminologist?”

“Eventually, I knew one lived on this street. I just didn’t know which house.”

“How did you know?” The hairs on the back of El’s neck were rising up.

_ If he knows that, what else does he know. Be very careful here El. Get your antenna up. _

“This changes my… um... story a little bit.” Mike said, frowning even more.

_ He’s looking very sad. What do my studies have to do with him changing his story? _

“You are still going to tell me the truth?”

Mike looked hurt. “Yeah, but I was going to lean towards the happier side of my story… not the bad stuff. You might as well know it anyway.”

_ I made him feel bad. I will make it up to you Mike. I promise. _

“Where to start… where to start…”

“Just like the movies again Mike, from the beginning.”

  
  


XXXXX

“This is not the happy part of the story, Eleven. It’s not something I dredge up a lot.”

“I will kiss you along the way, will that help?”

He gave her a weak smile. “Definitely won’t hurt.”

“So, along with my complete inability to fix all things mechanical when I was a kid. I was bullied a lot. I can’t tell you how many times I cried myself to sleep, not being able to do anything about it. During my middle school years, there wasn’t one day I didn’t have a bruise. Mainly from one guy, Troy Walsh, he called me  _ frogface _ all the time.

“You are  _ not _ a frogface.” El said vehemently. Then she kissed him on the cheek.

“Thanks El. It certainly didn’t do my confidence any good. Asking a girl to the Snowball was one of those daydreams I had a lot. Maybe if I’d seen you in school I might have thought twice. But there was no one. I had no one. I learned very early on that nice guys finish last.”

“Don’t say that Mike.” She kissed the corner of his mouth.

“It’s true El. I was a lonely kid. It was easy to put all my energy into college… especially after… after… after the accident.”

“What happened Mike?”

_ This isn’t going to be good.  _ El held Mike a little tighter.

“I never knew where my dad worked. It just didn’t come up in kitchen table conversation. One day my mom and two sisters went to visit him at work. I didn’t want to go, made a big fuss about it. My mom rolled her eyes, said fine, and let me sulk.”

“That was the day Hawkins lab had a problem. Must have been a big one, because there were explosions, gun fire… and… and… my mom and dad, and older sister Nancy were killed in the building.”

“Oh, no… Mike. I’m so sorry.” El didn’t think kissing Mike at this point was appropriate so she just hugged him tighter.

“Your dad was at the lab investigating something happening there. He was able to save my little sister Holly, and some other kid at the lab. I never knew who it was, he didn’t mention it. After Holly got out of the hospital, and I don’t know how many strings your dad had to pull, but I was allowed to raise Holly in my parents house.”

_Oh my god. Oh my god. Mike doesn’t know! I have to tell him. I_ have to!

“I got to do that for three days. My parents house caught on fire, your dad must have known someone involved in the lab was involved because… he saved both our lives. Holly’s again and mine.”

“Your dad said for safety reasons, he had me stay at my best friend, Will’s house, and Holly would stay someplace else secret… El?”

El was crying, “H-H-Holly is my little sister… well, not really my sister, but my dad brought her… to… the cabin… she was there for years.”

This time it was Mike that hugged  _ her _ tighter.

“That’s a piece of the puzzle that was missing for me. I visited her all the time at your dad’s trailer, or at the Byers. At least, until she was old enough to understand. She never talked about you. She was always good at keeping secrets though.”

Mike smiled. “You must have told her to keep it a secret.”

El nodded.

“That’s the bad part El. Knowing that Holly had a bigger sister and a dad again makes me feel… incredible. It’s such a relief to know that… just that little bit of information…”

“Mike… why don’t you live in a million dollar highrise in a big city?” El wanted to change the subject, there was no point in dwelling on that day any longer.

“I’m almost at that part of the story El… I told your dad what I was going to college, and he made a lot trips for me. He always looked out for me. I told him I would pay him back for everything he’d done for me. I didn’t know how, but I was determined to do it.”

“As it turned out, the company made money… a ton of money. We never went public, so you can’t buy shares in it. You do an IPO to generate cash. We didn’t need to.”

“I still didn’t know who you were, but your dad was worried about you. Out of the blue he asked if you could stay with me. He said you needed your freedom, so he asked if I could help. He didn’t know how quickly I’d made a lot of money.”

“I told him I could do one better… I told him I could never pay him back. Not what he did for Holly and me, so I told him.  _ Anything  _ he needs. Just ask. No strings attached. So I bought every house on this street. This is an older part of town, and nobody wants to live here, a lot of the house needed work. I had them all fixed up, told your dad, pick one, you could stay there.”

“He must have picked the one across from you.” El said.

“He also said you were interested in being a criminologist, I said, ‘done’, but, I told him if you were going to be a criminologist it mean you weren’t stupid, he couldn’t afford to pay for a house and your college tuition, so I said, just tell her, her being you, that there was an…”

“Anonymous benefactor.” El and Mike said at the same time.

“Yes, from the lab, or government, who knew.”

“This doesn’t tell me why you aren’t living in a penthouse some place.”

“I did the corporate thing for a year or so. Didn’t like it. Too many meetings, my part was done really, I made the initial invention and patented, licensed, everything it required, blah blah blah. After helping your dad, I felt good, I’d given back something to someone who mattered.”

“You kept all this bottled up for years?”

“Who was I going to tell? I didn’t trust anyone other than your dad or Holly. Not that it’s a secret or anything… it’s just really personal. I’ve kept my feelings bottled up for a long time.”

“What you are telling me Mike… is what every girl wants to hear. You are telling me that you have a lot of love to give.”

Mike was silent again, but she could feel his nod.

_ I don’t care about his money… although that’s a nice bonus. I want him to be happy.  _ I  _ want to be happy too. He’s not had a good life… but I need to tell him about mine. Knowing what I know about him now… he’s going to feel bad for me. That’s ok… we need to  _ know _ each other and this is all part of it. _

“Mike, I’m going to tell you why you didn’t know who I was. I hate to say it, but it’s not a very good story either.”

“I will kiss you along the way, will that help?” He said.

“Definitely won’t hurt. Ok sit up.”

They both sat cross-legged in the blanket fort.

“Kiss me.”

Mike gave her a kiss, as gentle as he could make it.

“Hmm, that’s what I thought. Mike, your kisses are very sweet. And chaste. We need to fix that. C’mere.”

After a few seconds Mike pulled away, almost panting.

“Um… uh, I’ve never been kissed like that before. That… was… um. Good.”

El smiled at him, “I wanted us to kiss like that at least once. I don’t know if you are going to want to kiss me after what I have to say.”

“Uh oh. You kissed me through my story… I will kiss you through yours. Like that if you want.”

“I do.”

_ This is it, I’m going to tell him. I’m scared. I don’t think I’ve ever been scared this much in my life. Even last night’s storm didn’t scare me as much as what I’m about to tell him. _

_ I love you Mike. No matter what you think of me after this. _

_ I love you. _


	5. Eleven's Bottle

“My mom was unknowingly involved in the MKUltra project. P… um, a doctor named Brenner thought I might be special, so seconds after I was born, I was taken to the lab.”

As soon as El said the word lab, the tears began to flow heavy from Mike’s eyes. She paused, brushed what she could, from his cheeks, leaned in and kissed him on the mouth.

“Go on,” Mike said.

El stared into the saddest eyes she’d ever seen. Mike’s look would haunt her for the rest of her life, she was sure of it.

“I was experimented on. I was rewarded for success. Punished for failures.”

“What was considered a success?” Mike’s eyes showed he didn’t even want to ask the question.

“Moving things with my mind.”

“Telekinesis.”

“Right. I can’t do it. I was punished almost every single day from about the time I was six years old till I escaped. My dad said I was probably eleven or twelve.”

“What made them think you had telekinetic ability?”

El hesitated. “There were… readings… showing on their equipment.”

“Well that could be anything. What made them think telekinesis.” Mike said, a little angry. Not at El of course but the people who ran the Hawkins lab.

“That’s what they wanted.”

“Maybe you had some kind of psychic ability that was different that could have been developed. I’m glad you escaped, they would have weaponized it anyway.”

El sniffed, “I do have an ability Mike.”

“But you didn’t tell them did you? Good girl.”

“M-Mike… I had to use to escape.”

“Good for you. El, shows them…”

_ He’s not getting it. I  _ have to, have to  _ tell him. _

“I... k-k-killed people... with it… that night everything... went to hell.” El was no longer coherent and started sobbing helplessly.

Mike enclosed her in his arms and said, “I figured you did something like that El. Obviously in self-defense, and also obviously nothing your dad was worried about as Chief of Police.” It doesn’t… change the way I feel about you. Not one bit.”

El leaned back and looked at him with wonder in her eyes. She looked back and forth between his eyes.

_ Well… now he knows… and he seems ok with it. He doesn’t seem to be fazed at all. _

She looked down… “Mike, why are you ok with this? I haven’t even told you what I can do.”

“You were a little girl, I… I don’t even want to think about what they were doing to you.”

El laid a hand on his arm, “I wasn’t abused… or anything like that. Only punished. Put in a cold dark room where I had to sleep on the floor.”

“You did what you had to do. And I’m glad you did it, because you are here with me now… and you are already changing my life.”

“I am?”

“Yeah. I thought I would be alone my entire life. Notice I only had a single bed up there? You might think I’m a hippie, and I suppose I am, but I’m a shy one. Horribly shy. Dustin’s wife Suzy tried to set me up with blind dates… I told her not to bother anymore… first one was so stuck up I thought that was what girls were like nowadays and I wasn’t interested. You come along and actually get soaked with me.  _ And _ sit in the rain with me. I knew there was something there… at least I hoped so.”

“There is, Mike.”  _ He’s trying to get my mind off the lab. He’s such a sweetie. I would take my jammies off for him right now if he asked. I know he’s not going to though. It’ll be the last thing on his mind. _

They were both silent for a few minutes.

  
  
  


XXXXX

  
  


“Here’s a question I never thought I’d be asking a girl.”

El raised her eyebrows.

“Should I get a double bed.”

“King size.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

“I didn’t want to be, um, presumptuous,” Mike said.

“Mike. You can presumpt me all you want. You said earlier that nice guys finish last. Well  _ my _ nice guy can finish last… and anywhere he wants.”

Mike didn’t get it at first.

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


“Dustin? Yeah, You’re on a conference call with Will. No I did  _ not _ finally get a cell phone. I’m borrowing Eleven’s. I’m putting you guys on speakerphone.”

“Eleven who?” El could hear coming from her phone.

“Eleven is the name of… of… my… girlfriend?” When El saw his questioning eyes, her head nodded vigorously.

_ I have a boyfriend! I can’t wait to tell Max… and my dad… and Holly… and the entire world. I have a boyfriend! _

“Ok, I want… let’s see five 797F Mining trucks. Custom built, and as soon as you can get them.”

“Seriously? Mike they cost about five million apiece, custom? Double that. Fast? Double it again.”

“Will,” Mike said, ballpark figure, how much does Frogface Inc. make… a day?”

“You want… um… Eleven to hear this?”

“I have no, and will  _ not _ keep any secrets from her. Both of us have been through too much.”

“Ok, well it jumps between 100 and 500 million a day. Employees always get paid first, then investments are made, the rest is banked. Frogface Inc. is worth close to two trillion. Actually  _ you _ are, but you know what I mean.”

“That’s what I thought, so in a day, we could pay for the trucks.”

“What do you have in mind for them?” Dustin asked.

“I’m going to serve a big bowl of hurt to that lab. If I can’t buy them out, they are going to… I’m going to… I don’t know what I’m going to do… or exactly how I’m going to do it, but that lab is coming down. I’m doing this for me, but I’m especially doing this for Eleven. There is a reason the company is called Frogface, right?”

He looked over at her, her eyes glistened with tears and she mouthed a ‘ _ thank you’  _ to him.

“You’ll send the custom details later?” Dustin asked.

“Yeah, and one other thing. I want an aircraft carrier. No planes, but crew can be ex-military.”

“Uh, Mike, only one shipyard has permission to build those. They are nuclear you know. They also take around four or five years to build.”

“We have defense contracts, we almost  _ are _ the military industrial complex. I’m sure we can swing something. Remember we don’t have a board of directors dragging their feet. I don’t want go all Steve Jobs on this, but I want it to happen.”

“Would you like me to solve world poverty and world peace to while I’m at it.?” Dustin was being sarcastic.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, and maybe it’s time we create an engineering company for massive projects.”

“You mean like moving houses, that kind of thing.”

“Bigger, I want the ability to take on  _ huge _ engineering projects. Something we can charge in the billions for, but guarantee five nines of success.”

Silence on Dustin’s end. “That’s actually a good idea Mike. I know just the people to have this up and running in no time.”

  
  
  


XXXXX

  
  


El passed Max on her way to the bathroom.

“Ok, give up the goods, is he hung or what?”

“Max! He’s in the room, have a little respect for my boyfriend.”

Max looked at Mike, “So how many times did you make her c-”

“MAX! For Christ’s sake. Show some class.”

“If you  _ must _ know  _ Maxine,  _ we decided to have sloppy sex on your bed when you were gone, or watching TV or something.” Mike said nonchalantly.

“Ooh, Touché.” Max said.

As Max walked by El she leaned over and said, “Hold on to this guy, seems like nothing bothers him.”

El smiled inwardly.  _ I’m never going to let him go. _

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


“So, um, El. that was me in corporate mode. Was I too nasty to Dustin?”

“No, you two were talking like friends.”

“Dustin and Will are two of my three best friends. Lucas is the third.”

“Lucas? Lucas Sinclair?”

“Yeah, do you know him?

El laughed, “That’s Max’s boyfriend. She dumps him every other week.”

“Lucas doesn’t deserve that, he’s a nice guy.”

“I know Mike I’ve met him, I told Max she’d going to do it once too often, and that’s going to be it. She doesn’t want to lose him, not a guy like that.”

“I was going to ask you to come along with me today to buy a new bed… mattress anyway, but I’m rethinking that.”

El’s eyes went wide, “Why?”

“I’d rather sleep in the blanket fort now. With you there of course…”

El tried to give him her prettiest smile. “Ok.”

“Ok, let’s go see Holly instead, I haven’t seen her for a few days. She lives just down the street.”

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


El took off her socks. “There’s one more thing… get in the blanket fort.”

_ He’s either forgotten, or he’s being very careful not to ask. _

“Something important? Ok.” Mike took off his socks and crawled into the blanket for.

“All important meetings between us will be held here.” El said trying to make it sound official.

Suddenly Mike had a deer in the headlights look.

_ He looks really scared. What’s he thinking. He just doesn’t look scared, he looks terrified. _

“I realized I forgot to tell you one thing.”

She looked at him… waiting.

“I’m not sure I said this officially, but I’ve discovered that there’s one thing I love more than the rain.”

El’s eyes went wide in expectation….

_ He’s going to say it. He’s really going to say it. _

“You.”

She bowled him over with her kisses. “I knew it Mike. But a girl likes to hear that someone loves her every day… more than every day. One last thing you really need to know about me.”

“What your ability is. I know you want to tell me.”

“I can make people feel pain. Lots of pain. Crippling pain. Pain that can cause death kind of pain.”

“Um. ok.”

“I want you to know how real it feels, so I’m going to give you pain. Only once and.” Twin tears slipped from her eyes. 

“I know you don’t want to do it, so let’s make it something simple? Make me feel a stubbed toe. Can you do- ah FUCK!”

Mike immediately pulled his foot up and cradled it in his hands, messaging his middle toe.

“The pain will go away in a few seconds.” El said crying.

Mike’s eyes were closed shut tightly squeezing out tears of pain.

“Ah, shit. My toe is fucked. I’m never going to walk again… Ah fuck, I think i’m going to have to have my toe amputated all the way to the knee. Gah, is it still attached? I can’t look. I’ve never lost a toe before. Maybe I can have my thumb removed and sew it on where the toe used to be. I’ll never be able to go barefoot again, people will puke at the site of it. What am I gonna do? I’ll be a pariah… a hermit… I’ll never be able to do  _ anything  _ ever again. My whole life has been totally ruined.”

Mike opened one eye.

“Are you quite done?” El said.

_ He made me feel better about causing him pain.. I love this guy. I love Mike Wheeler. _

“You are a girl who can take care of herself. You are already a weapon. You can’t tell anyone Eleven.”

“Only my dad and you know.”

“I will take your secret to my grave Eleven. Even if…”

“Even if what, Mike?”

“Even if we don’t work out. I would never betray you like that.”

El leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth, “We’ll work out because I said so. I pretty much get what I want. Just ask my dad. We really should go see Holly. She worries a lot about me. 

“She lives down the street.”

“Let’s go.”


	6. Holly and the Trucks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you are going to be disappointed that the big truck scene isn't in this one. To tell you the truth it was slowing me down on the other stories i want to write. As Max would say it was going to be a little derivative, mainly from the last story where I had the lab destroyed.
> 
> But as Hopper would say, I have a compromise. You still get the scene, but from a different perspective, and it increase the derivativeness (new word!) I'm going to have this Mike meet the Jane Ives from "Elevator Pitch". But it's not one of those dimensional stories.
> 
> Hopefully it finishes off both stories, and that you like what I did with them. 
> 
> I need to post some of the others I'm working on.
> 
> XXXXX

Holly opened the door, looked surprised, “El! I was wond…”

She looked down at Mike and El’s clasped hands. Her own hands went to her face, and her emotions got the better of her.

“I always hoped you two would find your way to each other.”

The real tears started then and they couldn’t understand a word she said for the next half hour.

  
  


XXXXX

  
  


El sat close to Mike. On the floor, there was barely any furniture in the living room.

“You have even less furniture than Mike.”

“When you lose everything, twice, you learn not to be materialistic. Take a look at Mike. He could afford anything he wants, but he lives… sparsely… I’m sure you’ve seen him enjoying the rain.”

“That’s how we met,” El said. “I was curious to see who this guy was… and I’m glad I did. You remember the storm last night?”

“That’s right! How are you doing El? I know how much you hate those.”

“I was with Mike, he made me forget there was even a storm.”

“Oh?” Holly waggled her eyebrows.

“We just slept together Holly, I mean, slept beside each other. Don’t be Max version two.”

Holly laughed. “I can just imagine what she said.”

“Well, I’m not going to repeat it.”

“Did he make you a blanket fort?”

El looked surprised, “Yes he did!”

“He made me one after… after the accident, we slept in there until your dad had to rescue us from the fire. Speak of the devil, here he comes up the driveway.” Holly jumped up to go let him in.

Hopper took one look at the three of them, he ran his forearm across his eyes. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this day. For you three to get together and help each other finish healing.”

“Me too, Dad.” Holly said.

El got up and hugged Hopper’s middle. He closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head. “Love you kid.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

After El let him go, Holly did the same, with his eyes closed again, Hopper said, “Love you to kid.”

“Love you.” Holly said.

A few moments after everyone had composed themselves, Hopper said, “Listen, the reason I came by, was that there have been a rash of break-ins in Hawkins. It’s your boyfriend, Troy. El, so don’t hurt him too much if you catch him. And with that I have to go.”

He gestured between the three of them, “Talk among yourselves.” He gave a big grin, turned around and left.

El head was turned his way, but her big eyes swiveled over to look at Mike. 

“Boyfriend?” It was Mike’s question.

“You haven’t told him?” Holly said to El. El had a sheepish grin on her face.

“I dated him for about 17 min. He tried to get into my pants with Holly in the room.”

“How bad did you hurt him?” Mike asked El.

“I made him feel like a demodog ripped off his left one.” El said.

“Lett one of what?”

“Balls.”

“That’s why you named your company Frogface.” El said. Her feeling of pride for her boyfriend made her heart swell.

“Ouch. I thought my stubbed toe was bad. Troy used to call me frogface. He was a bully. Um, El, what’s a demodog… is that something the lab was working on.” 

“You didn’t tell him about the Upside Down?” Holly said, her eyes big with the question.

“What’s the upside down?” Mike asked.

“Mike, that’s a blanket fort story. You should go now… El, tell him. If he loves you like I know he does… he will be ok with it.”

“This sounds bad.” Mike said.

  
  


XXXXX

“That sounds like something out of H.P. Lovecraft.” Mike said. “They all exist? All of that really happened.”

El nodded. “I know it’s hard to believe… but I can stub your toe again, only harder, if you don’t believe me.”

“El. I think I know you wouldn’t lie to me. That all sounds like scary shit...” Mike hung his head, “...and you had to go through all that yourself. I’m not sure I could have helped, but I would have been by your side through it.”

El smiled at him, “Just knowing that Mike… just knowing you want to be by my side... it’s accelerating.”

“Exhilarating.”

“Both.” El said.

El took a deep breath. “That’s it Mike. You know my dark side.”

Mike tapped her heart. “I know your light side too.”

“I want you.” El said.

  
  
  


XXXXX

“Who are you texting?” Mike asked. They were laying on their sides facing each other and then El rolled over on her back and reached for her phone.

“I’m answering Max’s question from this morning.”

“Which one was that?”

“How many times.”

“Oh.” Mike’s face was burning.

“I think it was seven for me and three for you.”

Mike said nothing.

“Nothing to be embarrassed about Mike. I won’t do it again. It’s impossible to shame Max. I just wanted her to know how good you were.”

El leaned over and kissed him. “You are all mine. I’m a lucky girl.”

  
  


XXXXX

  
  
  


Three months later, Hopper, Max, Holly and Mike were at El’s house. She was lying on the couch dressed in a bathrobe under a thick wool blanket, a thermometer in her mouth. Her nose was red and her eyes puffy.

“Go away Mige, I don’d wand you to caj my code.”

“You only have yourself to blame for that, El.” Max said. “You guys sitting out there in the rain like crazy people.”

“Crazy in the rain.” Holly said.

El’’s phone rang.

“Whoze dat?” El said through her nose.

“Anybody who would call El is already in this room.” Hopper took the phone and looked at it.

“Who the hell is Dustybun?”

Mike laughed. “That’s for me.”

Mike took it, “You’re on speaker phone… Dustybun.”

“Yeah, yeah, Suzy likes it so it’s staying. Mike, I’ll loan you money for a cell phone, unless,you  _ want  _ me to talk to your girlfriend while you’re not around?”

“I”m  _ always _ going to be around her Dustin… what’s on your mind.”

“Everything you requested is done.”

“Everything?”

“Dude, what did I just say? Everything. Retrofitted, manned, crewed, everything. Plus a few extras”

“That’s great! It went easier than I thought.”

Everyone could hear Dustin laughing… yeah, it’s great to be king and not have to deal with the details. You want to know what it cost you?”

“No. I don’t care. If it’s done, it’s done. Thanks Dustin.”

“It’s why you pay me the big bucks, Mike. One other thing. There’s another cost involved.”

“Ah, was that the sound of the other shoe dropping?”

“Yup. While the operation is in progress, you are all going to the Frogface.”

“Is that what you called it?”

“Called what?” Max said.

“I own an aircraft carrier.” Mike said to her.

“Um, Dustin, I think Holly wants to be on one of those trucks.”

“Done.” Dustin, said.

“Also, I have girl who’s a Zoomer here, she would like to drive one. Can you make that happen?”

“Done.”

XXXXX

  
  


“You named this one  _ Holly’s Revenge? _ ” Max said?

“Yeah, I did. When you see what it can do, you’ll find it’s appropriate.

“I’m ready,” Holly said.

The sound and  _ feel  _ of all eleven trucks starting up brought tears to her eyes.

But she was more than ready for revenge.


End file.
